MESKILL NOMINEE OPPOSED BY BAR

HARTFORD, Sept. 28—Gov. Thomas J. Meskill today nominated J. Brian Gaffney, former Republican state chairman, to the Superior Court, against the recommendation of the Connecticut Bar Association, which! found Mr. Gaffney unqualified for the second highest court in the state.

The case of Mr. Gaffney's nomination is almost a carbon copy of Governor Meskill's own, The Governor was nominated by Richard M. Nixon, hours before Mr. Nixon resigned the Presidency, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the nomination is being opposed by the Americari Bar Association on hte ground that the Governor has had too little courtroom experience.

“Judgeships don't belong to the Bar Association,” the Governor said at a news conference yesterday, after it was clear, that he would soon be naming his close friend and political ally to the Superior Court.

Pledge to Bar Recalled

“They belong to the people,” Governor Meskill added, sloughing off reminders that he had pledged in writing to the Connecticut Bar Association when he was a candidate for Governor four years ago that he would not name anyone to the state bench who had not been cleared by the bar association.

“I would be guided by them,” said United States Representative Ella T. Grasso, the Democratic nominee for Governor, pledging to submit judicial appointments to the state bar for clearage.

“I would rely very heavily on the bar, but I'm not prepared to sit here and say I might not differ with the bar,” said the Republican candidate for Governor, United States Representative ‘Robert H. Steele.

Governor Meskill and Mr. Gaffney came up together through the Republican political organization in New Britain.

Mr. Gaffney managed Governor Meskill's gubernatorial campaign four years ago, and was appointed Republican state chairman after the election, position from which he could control the party organization and much of the patronage.

Governor Meskill submitted Mr. Gaffney's name twice to the Connecticut Bar Association as the Superior Court nominee. Each time, Mr. Gaffney's name came back with approval‐only., for the Court of Common Pleas, a lower court that is being phised out at the end of this year.

“The Governor has the power and he used it,” said James Greenfield, president of the Connecticut Bar Association.

He would not comment directly on Mr. Gaffney's suitability for the $31,925 judicial post, except to say that the matter would come up in hearings before the General Assembly.

Superior Court judges are appointed by the General Assembly, on nomination by the Governor, normally for terms of eight years.

But ‘as the General Assembly is no longer in session, the nomination, in effect, is a temporary appointment. By the time a new General Assembly is elected and convenes next year, a new Governor will also have been elected. It is highly probable that the Republicans will have lost control of the State House of Representatives, it not also the State. Senate.

Mr. Gaffney was nominated, effective today, to fill a vacancy on the Superior Court “until the sixth Wednesday of the next session of the General Assembly, and until a successor is appointed and has qualified.”

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A version of this archives appears in print on September 29, 1974, on Page 45 of the New York edition with the headline: MESKILL NOMINEE OPPOSED BY BAR. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe